1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to turf care equipment, and more particularly, to an all electric operation riding greens mower.
2. Discussion
There are known a wide variety of lawn mowers including: powered or non-powered, riding, towed or walk behind, multiple or gang, reel or rotary, and so on type lawn mowers. Most of these mowers are capable of doing a fine job of mowing the lawn around the family home, the grass along the side of the road and around commercial buildings or on the fairways and rough areas of golf courses. Mowing of golf course greens, however, requires a very precise mower specifically designed and engineered to ensure a consistent close cropped cut of the green turf. In addition, because of the time required to grow a golf course green, sometimes several years to full maturity, and the cost associated with starting and maintaining a green, generally tens of thousands of dollars, it is vitally important that the mowing unit operate properly and not damage the green.
A number of greens mowers are known in the art and are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,425,197; 3,429,110; and 4,021,996. A more specific type of greens mower, a riding greens mower with multiple or gang cutting units is the subject of and discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,511,033; 3,668,844; 4,866,917; and 5,042,236. Common among the mowers discussed in these patents is the reliance on an internal combustion engine as a source of power, and complex drive mechanisms or hydrostatic systems for supplying power to the ground engaging wheels and the reel mowing units. These machines suffer a number of disadvantages. For example, use of internal combustion engines make the machines inherently noisy thus limiting the hours of the day during which they may be used without disturbing golf course neighbors or golfers who may be playing on adjacent areas. These machines, and particularly the machines which rely on hydrostatic drive systems, have the potential to severely damage a green unless careful precaution is taken to prevent the leakage or spillage of fuel, lubricating oil and hydraulic fluid. These machines also inherently produce emissions as a result of burning hydrocarbon based fuels in the internal combustion engines. In addition, the non-hydrostatic machines generally require substantial maintenance, adjusting and/or replacing of belts, drive members and the like, for sustaining operation of the machine. The hydrostatic machines require dogged checking and topping off of hydraulic fluid as well as painstaking checking of the hydraulic hoses and connection for leaks. All of the machines require periodic maintenance to change lubricants within and to tune the internal combustion engines.